It was nearly 60 years ago on the Gila River. That's the last time anyone had documented a river otter in New Mexico. A government trapper found the dead animal in a beaver trap he had set. Now, the chance of otters making any kind of a comeback in the upper reaches of the Gila is being put on hold indefinitely by New Mexico wildlife officials, a move that is frustrating conservationists and others who see the sleek mammals as the best hope for preserving endangered fish in the troubled river. Stretching from the mountains of southern New Mexico into southeastern Arizona, the Gila is an example of what has happened to rivers throughout the West. From choking drought conditions and habitat changes to an influx of exotic species, a number of factors have helped push populations of native fish to dangerously low levels. It's those endangered fish that the New Mexico Game and Fish Department says it's worried about. The department contends Arizona wildlife officials and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have expressed similar concerns. Playful and highly social, otters love to eat fish. Supporters of the reintroduction program argue the otters' first choice will be invasive crayfish and larger, slower nonnative fish like bass and carp...more
Monday, January 09, 2012
New Mexico pulls the breaks on river otters
It was nearly 60 years ago on the Gila River. That's the last time anyone had documented a river otter in New Mexico. A government trapper found the dead animal in a beaver trap he had set. Now, the chance of otters making any kind of a comeback in the upper reaches of the Gila is being put on hold indefinitely by New Mexico wildlife officials, a move that is frustrating conservationists and others who see the sleek mammals as the best hope for preserving endangered fish in the troubled river. Stretching from the mountains of southern New Mexico into southeastern Arizona, the Gila is an example of what has happened to rivers throughout the West. From choking drought conditions and habitat changes to an influx of exotic species, a number of factors have helped push populations of native fish to dangerously low levels. It's those endangered fish that the New Mexico Game and Fish Department says it's worried about. The department contends Arizona wildlife officials and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have expressed similar concerns. Playful and highly social, otters love to eat fish. Supporters of the reintroduction program argue the otters' first choice will be invasive crayfish and larger, slower nonnative fish like bass and carp...more
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Now these know-nothing environmentalists are telling all of us what and when an Otter will eat? Give me a break! They have to be the stupidest people in the world! What are the Otters going to eat when they eat all the stuff on the environmentalist's list of food? Certainly not the "endangered" fish, heaven forbid!!
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